Fast growing city in the west

Iwannahurl

I just noticed that the sub-title of the Galway City forum is "fast growing city in the west".

Is that just a factual description?

Is it still true?

If it's true, is it proclaimed as A Good Thing?

I recall that several years ago, in the early stages of the Celtic Casino fantasy, some people in Galway City used to boast of its being "the fastest growing city in Europe", as if this was something inherently good.

Much of that growth was car-dependent suburban sprawl, and also as we now know, totally unsustainable 'development'.

There were some worthwhile advances, such as the expansion of NUI Galway and GMIT. Also the city centre has come a long way from the dereliction and dinginess that I witnessed in my yute.

Any thoughts on good development versus not so good growth?

Mr. Presentable

Galway - fastest growing provincial town in the West.

75,000 population?

Interceptor

In the West of what? Connemara? Ireland? Europe?

I remember when all of this was fields... Blah blah blah.

'cptr

celty

It was the fastest growing in Ireland. They used to say that way back in the 1980s, when I was in school.

Maybe we've more ghost estates than anyone else. And people seem to be abandoning Limerick.

Aiel

The population during the 90's went from 30,000 to nearly 60,000 hence a near doubling of the population.Other cities with bigger overall population's had increases but not by around 50% which is what Galway had.So per capita Galway had for a brief period one of, if not thee, fastest growing population in Western Europe.
I personally think building new roads are not always a bad thing for good development.Good infrastructure is vital for a city to develop and grow.It doesnt always have to be roads,can be light rail,bus and cycle lanes etc but it does make a diiference.For example,earlier this year(or was it late last year) one of the top dogs for Medtronic came to visit the Galway plant.He flew into Shannon from where he took the then just newly built motorway as far up as Gort and was very impressed with how far Ireland had come with its infrastructure.This then was a key factor in his decision to invest more money into the Galway Plant and thus keep and create more jobs here.One person with a job then leads to that money being spread around the area at the local retail,entertainment facilities which in turn leads to more jobs in those areas.
I realise a good educated workforce here in the city is probably the biggest factor why companies like Medtronic etc come here but roads and infrastructure are a huge help too.
My general point being that good development and growth happens not just with good planning and a good educated population thus a key factor in attracting jobs but also good infrastructure does help too.
Waterford City has its by-pass,Limerick City now has the tunnel.What does Galway have?It has a city chocking on its own traffic and i can nearly guarentee that without a by-pass cities like Limerick and Waterford will grow alot more then Galway in the years ahead!!

c_man

Iwannahurl wrote: »

I just noticed that the sub-title of the Galway City forum is "fast growing city in the west".

Is that just a factual description?

Yeah, just look at the facts. We went from a duopoly of Supermacs and one McDonalds to a sprawl of the latter plus Burger King AND KFC.

The city's come a long way :cool:

biko

Yeah, that's a bit old tbh.
Or perhaps it's still growing?


If anyone has a better suggestion I can have it changed.
"City of the tribes"?

what_traffic

biko wrote: »

If anyone has a better suggestion I can have it changed.
"City of the tribes"?

+1

bonzodog2

Iwannahurl wrote: »

I just noticed that the sub-title of the Galway City forum is "fast growing city in the west".

Where does it say this ? I can't see it. I do have some entries in my hosts file though, so I never see ads, maybe it's something to do with that.

mikemac

bonzodog you need to look at the titles for the different forums in the West
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=177

bonzodog2

mikemac wrote: »

bonzodog you need to look at the titles for the different forums in the West
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=177

Thanks. I always go direct to the forums I use from the menu.

antoobrien

Iwannahurl wrote: »

I just noticed that the sub-title of the Galway City forum is "fast growing city in the west".

Is that just a factual description?

Is it still true?

Yes, yes & yes.

In fact of the 5 cities called out in the census Galway is the fastest growing city in the country (health warning - not sure how 4 counties in Dublin affects this).
Galway +4%
Dublin +3.8 %
Waterfor +2.2%
Cork -0.4%
Limerick -5%

It's interesting in that if we go back to 1979, Galway's population has more than doubled.

Here's a comparison of the figures for the other cities to help stimulate the debate.

1979 vs 2011
Dublin - 544,586 v 525,383
Cork - 132,267 v 118,912
Galway - 36,917 v 75,414
Limerick - 60,665 v 56,779
Waterford - 32,617 v 46,747

Iwannahurl

Ah, so it's just about population numbers then.

Quantity of population, not quality of development.

I was always wary of the pride inherent in the "fastest growing city in Europe" boast, as if fast growth in itself was something to crow about.

For example, I understand that overcrowding in (secondary?) schools is anticipated to be a problem in future years, and that some children will either have to stay back a year or go to schools in the county, because of lack of places.

smcgiff

Isn't Galway's rapid growth down to simply expanding its city boundaries into the county. This is the reason why technically Galway city is bigger than Limerick city because Limerick has, until now, been unable to extend its boundaries.

antoobrien

smcgiff wrote: »

Isn't Galway's rapid growth down to simply expanding its city boundaries into the county. This is the reason why technically Galway city is bigger than Limerick city because Limerick has, until now, been unable to extend its boundaries.

Proof that the city boundary has changed please.

I don't think the city limits have been moved in the past 15-20 years (or rather I can't remember if they have), so I'd disagree with that.

Limericks boundaries were changed in the past few years to make it bigger which has been taken into account in the latest census,

Aiel

Iwannahurl wrote: »

Ah, so it's just about population numbers then.

Quantity of population, not quality of development.

I was always wary of the pride inherent in the "fastest growing city in Europe" boast, as if fast growth in itself was something to crow about.

For example, I understand that overcrowding in (secondary?) schools is anticipated to be a problem in future years, and that some children will either have to stay back a year or go to schools in the county, because of lack of places.

Ireland doesnt allow high rise buildings much anymore,so the only way to go with expanding is outwards,not upwards.Also,do you want Ireland to have a Chinese type "one child only" policy for efficent population control?

smcgiff

The galway city boundary change I'm referring to would be in the region of 20 years ago moving galway ahead of limeick into 3rd place on a technicality. You're right limerick got a tiny boundary extension last year, but if you know limerick at all you'll know that a ridiculous amount of the built up area is in the county. Should change I imagine with the amalgamation of the city and county councils.

Iwannahurl

Aiel wrote: »

Ireland doesnt allow high rise buildings much anymore,so the only way to go with expanding is outwards,not upwards.Also,do you want Ireland to have a Chinese type "one child only" policy for efficent population control?

Hmmm, I'd have to give one of mine away then, would I?

No, I'd settle for efficient (spatial/urban) planning controls. But then, we don't do that either, do we?

jenno86

biko wrote: »

If anyone has a better suggestion I can have it changed.
"City of the tribes"?

"City of the Tribes and Traffic"

breadmonster

we need to build some flyovers... and a monorail

Iwannahurl

jenno86 wrote: »

"City of the Tribes and Traffic"

You've given me an idea...

antoobrien

smcgiff wrote: »

The galway city boundary change I'm referring to would be in the region of 20 years ago moving galway ahead of limeick into 3rd place on a technicality. You're right limerick got a tiny boundary extension last year, but if you know limerick at all you'll know that a ridiculous amount of the built up area is in the county. Should change I imagine with the amalgamation of the city and county councils.

I think the boundary change is masking the changes in population - even with Limerick's larger boundaries their population is still down on 30 years ago, and dropped 5% in the past 5 years (since the change). Galway on the other hand has grown since 1951 on average of 2% each year. In 1991 Limerick city (old boundaries) had a population of 52,083, Galway's population was 50,583. The difference since then is Limerick +4,696 (9.3%), Galway +24,831 (49%). Even taking into account boundary changes in Galway city that's a massive jump.